Joseph Drouhin : Montrachet Grand cru "Marquis de Laguiche" 2017

The Drouhins' plantings are in the northern part of Montrachet - there's even a plaque on the wall to show you where they begin - and were picked in three stages in 2017. This is plush and smooth, with less acidity and bite than some, but it's spicy and dense with aromatic oak, a drizzle of honey, and pear and nectarine fruit.

This is youthfully restrained for now with exotic essence of lemon, lime and grapefruit. The intensity and purity of the aromas is really captivating. Strong, flinty minerals and stones, too. The palate has a very plush, richly textural and expansive feel with extremely powerful tension between exceptionally concentrated citrus fruit and extremely intense acidity. Wow! Try from 2022.

Picked 5–7 September. Three parcels. Cask sample, not yet blended. About 30% new oak. They season the wood at their winery. Smells tighter and a little more dusty than the Corton-Charlemagne. Richer fruit flavour on the palate compared with the Marquis de Laguiche Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot, citrus veering to apricot. Creamy, deep, powerful and endlessly long. (JH)

A radiant showcase of what Burgundy can produce. A complex foundation, elegance, precision, and an endless finish. With an inimitable salinity, it is the quintessential embodiment of a great white grand cru born of the collective imagination.